Rozaini Mohd Rosli's Blog

Scandal at MBPJ?

Thursday February 25, 2010

MBPJ councillor drops a bombshell

By YIP YOKE TENG

Several senior officers from the Petaling Jaya City Council are alleged to own low-cost units. in the municipality

“Investigations are already being carried out and we need to get an explanation from the two officers”- DATUK MOHAMAD ROSLAN SAKIMAN

In a surprise move, councillor Mak Khuin Weng claimed that he had documents that showed that several high ranking MBPJ officers owned low-cost flat units.

“I have double-checked the information with the relevant agencies who confirmed that the names of these senior officers were listed as the owners of the low-cost properties,” he said, declining to elaborate on the details.

He pointed out that the Selangor government had rules stating that the purchasers of low-cost units must not have a base salary higher than RM2,500 and they must not already own a house.

“These officers had a base salary higher than RM2,500 when they bought these units.

“I also believe that these officers also own houses as well,” he said.

According to Mak, he had alerted the mayor to the situation on Jan 15 and had asked him to carry out an immediate inquiry.

However, Mak said nothing had been done for more than 20 days and he had yet to receive an official reply.

He also forwarded the matter to the Select Committee on Com-petence, Accountability and Trans-parency before Feb 14.

“The purchase of these low-cost units by MBPJ officers is of grave concern to me as a councillor, as these officers are working in departments that are directly linked to the approval process of development projects,” he said.

However, he did not name the officers involved as he said he did not want to prejudice the inquiry process.

When contacted, Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Mohamad Roslan Sakiman said he had instructed his deputy to investigate the claims.

“Investigations are already going on.

“We need to obtain an explanation from the two officers alleged to own the low-cost units as all this happened before I came on board.

“We understand that this has to be attended to immediately but we needed some time to get the details as the purchases were done in 2005 and the low-cost units were not under the council’s jurisdiction at that time,” he said.